Author Allen Pollens, of Beaverton, right, recently published his 10th books, titled “Daniel's Odysseys: Reflections On Life & a Love Story,” in May. The book includes references several coastal cities and sites from Oregon, including Seaside. Pollens was at the Best Western Ocean View Resort to promote the book with his friend, Robert Keniston, left, June 24 and 25.

In “Daniel’s Odysseys: Reflections On Life & A Love Story,” Beaverton author Allen Pollens takes readers on a literary journey through his life and along the Oregon Coast.

Pollens, 81, is the author of 10 books, primarily science-fiction and children’s literature. “Daniel’s Odysseys,” published through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform in May, is his first autobiographical work. “I had stories I wanted to tell, and never had a way of telling them,” Pollens said at Seaside’s Best Western Ocean View Resort during a recent tour.

The Best Western was a calculated choice, as the hotel chain is incorporated into the nearly 500-page novel because it has facilities at key coastal locations, including Seaside and Astoria.

In the book, 85-year-old Daniel — the character who represents Pollens — takes an extended sojourn down the Oregon Coast with his friend, Paul. The duo departs from the mouth of the Columbia River in Astoria and travels to Brookings, near the California border, visiting numerous places along the coast and stopping at nine Best Westerns. All the while, Daniel shares his life story and recollections of historical events with Paul.

The book contains images and photographs of sites along the coast provided by Pollens. Pollens chose the Oregon Coast as the setting because of its significance to him, as well as its untamed, immense beauty. “The Oregon Coast is beautiful in some respects because it’s not swimmable, and therefore not developed,” he said.

Pollens, who moved to Oregon in 1997, is originally from the East Coast. He was born in Brockton, Mass., to a Romanian mother from Brooklyn and a father from Russia.

He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, and took several master’s level mathematics courses. He was an engineer in the high-tech industry for about a decade before transferring to a sales position. That is one of his personas. The other, he said, is that of storyteller.

“I have always told stories, from the time I was a kid,” he said. “I’ve always been enamored with fiction.”

He connects his love of literature to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped.” When he was a very young boy, the classic sat on a shelf, enticing him with images of pirates on the cover, until the day he could finally read it. Inspired by the adventure tale, from then on, he had a book with him no matter where he was going, he said.

Although Pollens crafted stories for his family and friends for many years, his first work, an apocalyptic science-fiction epic titled “Creator,” was not published until 2011. Nine books followed, with “Daniel’s Odysseys” the most recent.

The literary tool Pollens values most is character development.

“I like to have characters that are fully developed and live and breathe,” he said.

Sometimes that means being willing to change the plot of a piece because of a character’s actions, which are necessary to keep that character consistent, he said. A few characters show up in several of the author’s novels.

“I kept the characters because they were so developed, and I liked them so much,” he said.

Books by Pollens are available in paperback and for Kindle at Amazon.com. For more information, contact AlPollens@comcast.net or visit storyteller-spot.com.